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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Adventures in Marketing

As I stated in yesterday's post Dk has crazy marketing adventures. I thought I would share some of the joys with you. If you don't know already Dk is an amazing chef. He's always had a passion for food, which was then set a fire with school.

A little back story

Just before we started dating he was laid off from his job in the photo industry. He had been trained on the old school photo stuff... things like film and development. His job went bust thanks to things like digital and photo printers and he was forced to find a new career. We than started dating. (Not by my choice mind you, but you do what the Lord tells you to do and the Lord made it very clear I was to date him. Funny how the Lord knows best, perhaps one day I'll learn to listen better and not drag my feet so much.)

We discussed his options and decided he would go to Ai for Industrial Design. Industrial design focuses on the form of things. Best example, look at your mouse, an industrial designer designed the sleekness.. buttons to line up perfectly with your fingers, form to your hand that kind of thing. It was a good fit for Dk, plus it pays decent as he was heading towards starting a family that mattered.

Now Ai has many majors, so it's not uncommon to have a Photoshop class next to the machine shop lab or even a sewing lab. Here we are 2 years-ish into Dk's classes, newly married and they schedule his classes to be right next to the kitchen classes. The kitchens are huge with big open windows, lots of counter space.. a chef's dream. He would stand there watching on his break recognizing the foods commenting to me over the phone how the student was going to burn something and sure enough they did. After lots of prayer it was made clear he was to switch majors.

I on the other hand, until we were married and living together, couldn't tell you where the market was or even what you could buy there. Ok ok I knew you could buy food but I wouldn't, in my wildest dreams, venture far from the frozen food section. Once Dk sent me to the market to get groceries, just after we were married, and I was lost. I ended up mindlessly roaming the isles giving up and leaving empty handed. That happened to me more than a few times, but not anymore. :D

Jokingly I say I went to culinary school to. You see Dk does we have termed "info dump". What that means is the second he see's me he fills me in on everything he's learned. Decay- I enjoy the info dump just let me go to the bathroom first. I'll say it again he is a wealth of knowledge. I being pretty smart have learned from his rants and am proud to say can hold my own in the kitchen and at the market...I digress.

Sometime later Dk had found a local Korean market and the marketing love was born. I know we are blessed to live in a unique part of so cal. Within a 20 min drive we have Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese and Indian markets. I bet Dk will chime in and remind me of one I forgot. We also have the, as we call them, white people markets. They all have their niche and specialties.

This past weekend I went with Dk to 2 markets, Dalat a local Vietnamese market and Altayebat a local Middle Eastern market. The best part of these markets are the little nuances like the music they play. Just yesterday Dalat had a remake of Katy Perry's hot and cold song sung by chipmunks and yes they were singing in Vietnamese. No I'm not kidding lol.

Altayebat's cashiers are the nicest checkers ever. Plus the manager is a huge, huge Star Wars fan and plays eastern remakes of the songs from the sound track. Shopping to the Imperial March is a whole new experience.

But the best thing about these markets are the prices. O-wow.For $14.63 at Altayebat we got 4 avocados, a 3.7 lb cauliflower, a .5 lb of cucumbers, .5 lb of a zucchini, fresh mint, .5 lb of lemons, mushrooms, a 10lb bag of potatoes, squash, pita bread and a huge 1lb bag of spinach. At Dalat we picked up softball sized artichokes 3 for a dollar, to prove it here is a pic.

All the signage is in English so we find what we need rocking out to crazy tunes. I'll be honest asking where stuff is can be a bust sometimes. Ironically all the men behind the counters speak Spanish. The turnover rate at the meat counter is so high that the meat is super fresh plus at Altayebat's its blessed in the name of Allah so that's good.

Another day I'll fill you in on the other markets and some of the games we play while at them, but now I have some cards to make. :D